Spring is sprung...

 Finally, after what seems like months of perpetual cloudy weather, spring arrived in Bensheim. The days are gradually getting longer, meaning I no longer have to walk to school in the dark, and the sun is becoming an increasingly frequent visitor in my little town, instead of just paying us the odd fleeting visit in between flurries of snow and rain. It’s amazing what a huge difference the simple notion of good weather can do to alter the atmosphere, or one’s own feelings! People are so much jollier when the sun is shining, things look so much nicer and the world is generally a better place! It’s funny, though, to observe people’s reactions to this week’s mini heatwave. Some people, the ‘glass is half-empty’ people, are still convinced it’s mid-winter, and insist on remaining wrapped up in their huge coats, scarves and hats, in the event that the cold weather might return and catch us all unawares. Then you have people on the opposite end of the spectrum who have taken the fact that the temperature is now in double figures to mean that it is practically the height of summer and have cracked out the shorts and flip-flops. Though I’m enjoying no longer having to look like the Michelin man’s twin sister, I’m not sure I’m quite ready to embrace summer clothes just yet!

The sun is shining, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is.

Crazy as it may seem, I now have less than two weeks before the Easter holidays. I seem to be saying this over and over again at present, but die Zeit geht so schnell vorbei, oder?! Once I return to Bensheim after the Easter break, I have a mere eight weeks left of this most incredible adventure, before I return to life in the Heimatland and Germany prepares for its next influx of budding, young language assistants arriving in September. This weekend has been my first proper free weekend in what seems like an age! I seem to have had things to do, places to go and people to see almost every weekend since the holidays, so it has been surprisingly nice to spend an entire weekend in my onesie, watching episodes of Glee; a chance to rest, recuperate, save a little money, and most importantly, sleep! Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am not good if I don’t get my eight hours per night. Considering, then, that I have not had a proper night’s sleep in what must be almost two or three weeks, now, I was becoming increasingly grouchier by the day!

Before I could reach the weekend and my most coveted lay-ins, however, came a phone call on Monday night from a colleague at school, asking if I could go on a school trip to Hanover with an IT class at 7am the following morning, as another colleague had to drop out at the last minute. Normally, I would be very hesitant to agree straight away. ‘Daring’ is definitely not an adjective that fits my character; preferring instead to think about the ins and outs, the pros and cons of a situation, and normally by the time my brain has finished working out whether or not it likes the idea, the opportunity has already passed. I’ve tried to adopt a ‘well why not’ attitude this year, however, so I decided to go. I’m becoming very spontaneous in my old age! Well, I suppose you only live once, after all – life may never present me with another chance to go to Hanover  and I might have spent the rest of my life wondering if I’d missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime by not going. (In all honesty, I don’t think Hanover could be described as the opportunity of a lifetime, but it was good fun, nonetheless.)

The main point of the trip was to visit the Cebit; a huge computer and technology exhibition in Hanover.  Apparently, Angela Merkel was there just before we were to start the whole thing off, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch a glimpse of the trouser-suited Chancellor. It appears we keep missing each other – first the Reichstag, then the Cebit. Though I’m not the most tech-savvy of folk, I still found the whole exhibition fascinating. There were many new technologies on display, including a headset that controls a tablet or computer by the power of thought, and a machine that shoots water vapour into the air, and you can control an ipad or smart phone by running your fingers through the water vapour. It was utterly incredible!

After a night spent in a youth hostel, we headed to a Volkswagen factory the following morning, where we had a tour of the plant that follows the production of one of their vans from start to finish. I won’t lie, trying to understand what the guy was telling us about the ins and outs of the car manufacturing process in German completely fried my brain, and I didn’t really understand much of it, but it was absolutely amazing to watch the machines in action. One thing that struck me on the way round, as I watched the hi-tech machines perform their duties with unfailing precision, was that they are actually only as intelligent as the people that programme them! It seems there truly is no limit to what human intelligence can achieve.

The idea that I will soon have to turn my attention to getting myself and all the stuff I seemed to have acquired over the past few months home is becoming  a reality that is drawing ever closer. I’m trying not to think about it too much yet, as I’m not really sure I’m ready to face the prospect of leaving Germany and the life I have established for myself here. But, there’s still a few page turns of my calendar left before then, and many things still to look forward to in the meantime; the most exciting of which currently is that it’s my birthday next week. I’ve never spent my birthday abroad before, so I think that celebrating German style will be a memory not to forget!

Bis dann

Emily